[00:00:00]

Wayne Lenhardt
Could you give us your name, spell it for us please, and then I’ll do the oath with you.

Michael MacIver
Michael McIver, M-I-C-H-A-E-L M-A-C-I-V-E-R.

Wayne Lenhardt
You live in Winnipeg?

Michael MacIver
I currently live in Winnipeg. Yes.

Wayne Lenhardt
Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth during this testimony?

Michael MacIver
I do.

Wayne Lenhardt
Could you tell us about your experience with these blood clots that apparently were unusual that you guys were seeing.

Michael MacIver
Well, I’ve been a funeral director for over 40 years and embalmed thousands of bodies. And basically, there’s two types of clots. There’s an ante-mortem clot, which is a white fibrous clot that occurs prior to death. And then there’s the post-mortem clot, which is a red jelly-like clot. And I’ve been seeing a high preponderance of these white fibrous clots since the COVID thing.

And at the offset of COVID— I consider myself a critical thinker and try to disseminate the information as I see it. Right at the offset, Teresa Tam was giving me some information that seemed to be conflicting, and then soon after that, the message was politicized. Prime Minister Trudeau was up there. Pallister government was up there. And I become highly suspect of some of the information that was being presented to us, the public at large.

So I started to look in terms of my profession at what I was seeing in the way of COVID. And I was seeing these white fibrous clots. Over the years, I’ve seen them occasionally. But almost with every single embalming, I would see these large clots. And I brought Mike in and we have video footage of this. I don’t want to be disturbing or anything, but part of my job as an embalmer is to facilitate the removal of clots. And usually, that’s relatively simple. I use pressure, and it removes the clots and these sorts of things.

But because of the size of these clots, I have to use a new technique of embalming, a restricted style of embalming that expands the vascular system to facilitate the removal of these clots. And I lack the scientific reasoning to explain why this is. But I see a strong correlation from the COVID thing to these clots, and I can’t explain why. But I thought it would be an interesting adjunct to a strong testimony that’s been presented here today.

And God bless each and every one of you who’ve suffered through this, and as a funeral director, I’ve seen many. And as Mike just testified, we’ve seen people suffering because of the, I would say, the ineptitude of the government. The government was elected. They’re an extension of us, the people. They should be operating on our behalf and not be a dictatorship and telling us how things are.

Wayne Lenhardt
I don’t want to get too far afield here, but I think it’s fair to say then, from what you’re saying, is that you’ve practised for 40 years as a mortician and you have not seen the severity and numbers of these clots.

Michael MacIver
That’s correct.

Wayne Lenhardt
Except when COVID hit, is that fair?

Michael MacIver
Shortly thereafter. Especially, I’d seen reports of the various clots in Europe with the AstraZeneca thing, and this and that. And so, I started looking to see if I could physically or visually see clots myself, and sure enough, almost every body I was embalming that was affected with the COVID. And then, shortly after the vaccine implementation is when I’d seen a higher preponderance of the clots.
Wayne Lenhardt
Okay, I think I’m going to ask for any questions from the commissioners now. It’s getting late.

Commissioner Drysdale
I just want to be clear about your testimony. Are you saying that you started to see these clots in 2020 before the advent of the vaccines?

Michael MacIver
Well, just prior to 2020, St. Boniface Hospital had a high respiratory— They had a high incidence of flu and they had this unknown thing circulating. It wasn’t defined as COVID at that point.

And then a few months later, in around the end of March of 2020, they put down the restrictions and all those sorts of things.

[00:05:00]

And then shortly thereafter, they fast-tracked some of these vaccines. And I think AstraZeneca was one of the first, and there was a lot of, especially in Europe, they seemed to purport that there was a lot of people suffering strokes and heart attacks and all these sorts of things.

It was shortly thereafter where I started seeing more incidents of these clots. All the bodies at the various hospitals—the Health Sciences Centre, St. Boniface, and all the rest of them—they had the bodies clearly marked with a magic marker, COVID+. And, so, of course, I’d be practising aseptic techniques: protecting myself in the eventuality if I got stabbed or something with a needle or these sorts of things. I was very vigilant in observing what was happening with the body. And, of course, you try to minimize your work area to prevent contamination of the area and these sorts of things. And as Mike alluded to earlier, we didn’t see the danger.

Initially, there was a large fear factor, you are kind of apprehensive about— Especially since I have suffered 33 heart attacks, I got blood cancer and all these sorts of things and probably have a greater propensity towards catching something if ever. And I didn’t catch anything, and I soon thereafter lost my apprehension and trepidation of going into the prep room.

But it was shortly thereafter that I started noticing these clots. And I called Mike in, and he started photographing and videotaping what I was seeing. It’s too graphic for the screen here or the public, but, you know, in the future, if something ever does come of it, I just wanted to present this information as an adjunct to what’s already been presented here today.

Wayne Lenhardt
Mike, I’ve just talked to Shawn here and he has three photographs that came out of the Toronto hearings. We’d just like to put this up and ask you whether the ones you were seeing were similar to these.

Michael MacIver
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was seeing, and those are what we call ante-mortem clots. Basically, the body— When it suffers a vascular injury, the body goes through hemostasis. It wants to prevent the body from bleeding out. So the liver kicks out an enzyme that reacts as a catalyst to the thrombin that’s circulating through your blood. It converts the fibrin, which is a liquid protein, into a string-like protein and that forms a patch to plug up the vascular damage. And sometimes, if too many white blood cells and plasma get built up in there, it starts backing up and forming an extra-large clot. For the number of clots, I can’t surmise that everybody that suffered COVID is suffering some form of vascular accident. You know, they talk about maybe some sort of heart damage or these sorts of things. And again, I lack scientific reasoning to explain it.

Wayne Lenhardt
Can you recall even the month that you started seeing these?

Michael MacIver
That would probably be more towards May, June, because we were kind of restricted—

Wayne Lenhardt
Of which year? May, June of which year?

Michael MacIver
We were restricted in what we could do at the funeral home originally. They limited the capacity of the funeral to like five people at one point. And then Mike was getting very frustrated with the rules and regulations and seeing all the heartache and heartbreak out there, where he just said: “Let’s just do it,” you know, pardon a better term, “the hell with these government officials and their—”

Wayne Lenhardt
I’m going to press you one more time, was it May or June of 2021 or 2022 or ‘20?

Michael MacIver
Yeah, it would have been in around 2021.

Wayne Lenhardt
Okay.

Michael MacIver
Yeah.

Wayne Lenhardt
Okay, any more questions from the commissioners? Okay, well, thank you very much then.

Michael MacIver
Well, thank you and God bless each and every one of you. Thank you.

[00:09:48]

Final Review and Approval: Margaret Phillips, August 10, 2023.

The evidence offered in this transcript is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) hearings. The transcript was prepared by members of a team of volunteers using an “intelligent verbatim” transcription method.

For further information on the transcription process, method, and team, see the NCI website: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/about-these-transcripts/

Summary

Mr. MacIver was a funeral director for 40 years and had embalmed “thousands of bodies”. Mr. MacIver reported the alarming and unusual clots that he was witnessing during the embalming process. There are anti-mortem clots (white fibrous that occurs prior to death – which he saw occasionally prior to COVID, then every day post COVID) and a post-mortem clot (red gelly-like). He started noticing a lot of the anti-mortem clots in late 2019 and it continued and got worse into May and June of 2021 (when the shots were implemented).

Each body he received was marked “COVID +” so he was aware who had passed away with/from the virus. He comments on a photograph of a clot from a Toronto mortician and confirms it was the same he was seeing and says addresses the science behind it.